We have covered the drought extensively on News Breakfast, but it isn't until you go and see the vast areas in the grip of the big dry that you get a full understanding of just how dire the situation is.

Parched, dusty paddocks as far as the eye can see; farmers relying on increasingly expensive fodder to keep their livestock fed; and rural towns struggling to survive.

Not only is it the lack of moisture, but the intense heat over the summers that has increased the evaporation of already dwindling dams.

Sam White, a cattle farmer just outside Guyra on the NSW Northern Tablelands, has been working the land for more than 30 years and declares this is by far the worst of the five droughts he has experienced.

Sam White says he simply has to deal with the climate situation he now finds himself in and try to make his property as drought-proof as possible by changing farming practices and locating more groundwater sources.

Sam has an operation big enough to survive, but I also heard from other farmers who are on verge of walking off the land.

2. It's not just the farmers

The drought is having a terrible impact on the towns that rely on farming for their existence.

A shop owner on the main strip of Stanthorpe in southern Queensland wept when I asked how things were going.

Farmers make up a lot of her customers and, because they are struggling, she is in dire straits.

The dam servicing Tamworth's 60,000 residents is at just 23 per cent and dropping.

The new normal in many of these places, drought or not, will be permanent water restrictions and local authorities are busy trying to educate people that hosing driveways or putting the sprinkler on in the middle of the day are now very much things of the past.

But it won't be too long before the national impact of the big dry will be felt.

Angus Ferrier, who represents the farmers in Queensland's Granite Belt who provide much of Australia's fruit and vegetable produce, reckons people in the big cities will be paying much more for their apples, stone fruits, tomatoes and salad greens this summer because of the drought's devastating effect on this year's crop.